Gary, Indiana will soon be home to a school named after one of their hometown heroes, Michael Jackson.
His mother Katherine Jackson signed off on a memorandum last month with The Gary Community School that "seeks to honor Michael Jackson and to inspire children to excel in the arts and education." The Jackson matriarch donated $10,000 in April during the Gary Promise scholarship event hosted by former NBA star Magic Johnson. This is when talk of renaming a school in her son’s honor came up says the district superintendent Cheryl Pruitt who’s working with the Jackson family to rename a school in Jackson’s honor. "She's always wanted something left here," Pruitt said.
Having struggled with poverty levels, the school district voted to close six of its 17 schools in June. Pruitt tells the Post-Tribune, "A close relationship with the Jackson family to improve the quality of programs for the Gary Community School Corp. can mean tremendous gains for the school district and the city as a whole.”
Michael last visited Gary in 2003 when he was honored with an honorary diploma from Roosevelt High School, most likely the high school she would have attended if his successful singing career hadn’t taken off at the tender age of 11.
